OnePlus 4 Rumors: Snapdragon 830, Headphone Jack, Mid-2017 Launch

Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus is all set to unveil its next-gen flagship smartphone OnePlus 4 in mid-2017. Even though its official unveiling is several months away, rumors about the device have already been doing rounds. A new report coming out of China claims that the handset will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 830 chipset produced using the 10nm process.

OnePlus 4 to be powered by Snapdragon 830

According to a posting on Chinese microblogging site Weibo, the OnePlus 4 with Snapdragon 830 will be more powerful and battery efficient than its predecessor. Snapdragon 830 is still under testing, and will be coupled with Adreno 620 GPU. The chipset is said to have a clock speed of 3.6GHz and an eight-core support. It is rumored to support up to 8GB RAM and 4K display.

The report claims that OnePlus 4 will run Android 7.1 Nougat right out of the box. What’s more, it is said to feature a huge 4,000mAh battery, which is a 25% increase over the OnePlus 3. The Snapdragon 830 processor was initially rumored to be produced by Samsung, but the order eventually went to TSMC as Samsung’s production had fallen behind the schedule.

OnePlus CEO teases headphone jack

Over the last few weeks, there were speculations that the upcoming OnePlus 4 could get rid of the 3.5mm headphone jack, following the footsteps of the iPhone 7. But a tweet from OnePlus CEO Carl Pei suggests otherwise. Pei tweeted out asking fans to vote whether they liked headphone jacks. The poll results were one-sided with about 88% people saying they favored the headphone jack.

Pei could be seeking opinion from fans or offering a hint that the company’s next-gen flagship will retain the headphone jack. After an overwhelmingly affirmative response to his question, Pei is unlikely to ditch the headphone jack. He might already have had a sense of what people were going to answer.

OnePlus 4 could feature an improved display for VR

For the past few years, the flagship OnePlus devices have retained the 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 display. It may cause some to believe that the upcoming smartphone will have the same display. But the Chinese smartphone maker could increase the display resolution to 1440 x 2560 with OnePlus 4 to offer better experience in virtual reality.

OnePlus has previously said that it would focus on launching just one flagship smartphone a year. The company is reportedly working on an improved version of OnePlus 3, likely to be called OnePlus 3T. It is rumored to have a higher price tag than the original OnePlus 3. The device is expected to run Android Nougat out of the box, and be powered by the Snapdragon 821.

Author: Vikas ShuklaAlthough he has a background in finance and holds an MBA, Vikas Shukla is a technology reporter. He has a strong interest in gadgets, gizmos, and science. He writes regularly on these topics. - He can be contacted by email at vshukla@valuewalk.com